Onosai commits to UH

She's only a junior, but Careena Onosai is seeing her collegiate dreams come true.

Onosai accepted an invitation from Hawaii to walk on and play volleyball in the fall of 2006. In the process, she turned down 60 Division I scholarship offers for either track and field or volleyball.

"It was pretty much easy. I just wanted to know if they really wanted me to walk on, and if I could play a big role in their program," said Onosai, a 5-foot-11 outside hitter who was voted to the Star-Bulletin All-State Team. "I was honored because they're one of the top programs in the nation. Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to play for UH. My mind was always on staying home."

Among the schools that wanted Onosai as a discus thrower were: Penn State, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Clemson, Auburn, Oklahoma State, Iowa State ... and many more. Onosai threw the discus 151 feet, 9 inches last year as a sophomore, opening eyes nationwide.

"I didn't want to just throw (the discus), I wanted to do something more active than that," she said. Coming into the spring, Onosai decided to focus on volleyball and track. That left no space for her first love, basketball.

"She grew up playing with some of the top girls in the state like Tatri Lorenzo (Kamehameha), Hennasea-Sue Tokumura (Iolani), Shanna-Lei Dacanay (Punahou)," said Onosai's father, Joe. "They were all teammates growing up at Kalakaua Clinic."

She doesn't regret the decision now.

"Giving up basketball, I had a really hard time with it. I wanted to cry. That's my passion. Now, it's a good thing I gave it up," she said.

In the past six months of playing for the Jammers Volleyball Club, her skills improved significantly. At a tournament in Las Vegas, her play, along with that of Mid-Pacific's Dani Mafua, got the attention of UH head coach Dave Shoji and assistant Charlie Wade.

Hawaii recently offered a scholarship to Mafua, a setter, and had none left.